Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Just have to give a shout out to Warren at The Doodle Daily, who was inspired by Skull-A-Day to start his project, and just completed his 365th doodle today! It looks like he's not stopping at one year either, so definitely keep an eye on his blog for more doodles in the future.

Henry Cowdery from Walnut Creek, CA showed off some of his ceramic work.

This first piece is a bowl.Salt Glaze C says:

Everyday we are fortunate to have new artwork from our readers and seeing your submission is another reason that I like my job. I truly enjoy your pieces. From the older rustic look of the skeleton to the raw primal feeling of an actual skull bowl your work brings out a lot of feelings with it. Thank you for submitting your work, and we look forward to seeing more of it in the future.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Today our friend Jack literally goes nuts for skulls. "I've been perusing your site for a few months and it's always very impressive! I'm from Australia and was considering how similar in colour the inside of an almond is to bone. A bit of scratching with a paper clip resulted in this simple little skull."

Fleshy meat inside,Bony case to hold it all,Are we really nuts?

I'm sure all of our readers feel like skull nuts. Luckily, we don't make it a habit of eating our skulls.....oh wait, yes we do! Thanks for complimenting our readers and their efforts as well as for your tasty looking little submission.

This piece does amuse me and reminds me of one of those repulsive faces I used to make with my brothers and friends as a child. It also remind me of the beginning a favorite movie, "One Crazy Summer", where there are two girls using their hands to make horrible faces. Someone tells them, "Girls, if you make faces like that and somebody slaps you on the back, You'll stay that way, forever." Of course, someone does slap them on the back and for the rest of the movie, the girls have these gross faces that everyone is scared of. Granted, that is only a small part of the movie, but it stayed with me...forever!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Let the skull hunting continue onward as we bring you even more of the unseen skulls that surround us everyday.

Mike Strick writes in with this beautiful spider pic. "Thought you might enjoy this picture of the false widow spider (Steadotoda nobilis) that lives in our kitchen. She's quite shy and usually hides away in her web, so I was glad to get this shot that shows her skull pattern so clearly!"

Virginian Richard Pettus made a great discovery once he got home from a recent trip, "Here is a photo I took yesterday at Lake Jocassee in SC. I was unaware there was a skull face cloud event until I looked at the photo later."

Danielle Roberts found this natural beauty on Blackhawk Trail at Mt. Madonna County Park. "I don't know if this counts because it looks like a crow skull, but I thought it was neat looking."

It's images like these that keep me searching my own personal world for skull simulacrum. Great pics by all of you. If you are lucky enough to catch a skull simulacra then please submit it to us and we'll be happy to display your trophy.

Again you have kept the love alive beyond the grave, Roger. I can only hope that my poor skeleton finds a way to dance a little jig after I'm long gone as a way to celebrate the loves that I've had in my life and the good fortune that I can be thankful for. Thanks, Roger, for reminding us all that we need to show the love.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Welcome to another addition of Flashback Friday.** This year the guest editors, Azurafae, Tatman, and myself, Citizen Agent, are taking turns counting down our personal favorite 17 skulls from the Original 365.25 Year. So please join us as we visit the archives and add our additional commentary onsome of the original pieces.

I have to say that my original comment on this one is rather interesting considering how the Skull-A-Day 1.0 year ended. Yes, I could be nice and link you right to it, but today is a day of discovery so I will let you go and find #366 yourself. Here is a good place to start.

What has always stood out in my mind about this piece was the creative spark that made it happen. These are objects in their natural state simply arranged with a minor modification . Some may consider this piece’s style to be “Surreal”, “Avant-garde”, or even dare to suggest “Pop”. Personally, this piece reminds me specifically of Marcel Duchamp’s collection of Readymades. In it, I admire Noah’s ability to look at the disks in their natural state and give birth to what we see here. This piece, in my mind, truly helped earn him the title of “ The Skullmaster.”

**Flashback Friday was a weekly countdown of the fan selected top 52 skulls of Skull-A-Day 1.0. Each week during year 3.0 The Skullmaster posted the original skull along with some additional commentary in order from lowest to highest rated, with the #1 skull appearing in the last week of year 3.0, all 52 can be found here.

Jack Morgan, who sent us some new technology, wrote: “I've been on your site a couple times, and I'm a big fan. I haven't seen anyone make a QR skull yet. If you use a smart phone to scan the QR code, it brings you to my blog. ”

Unfrozen Caveman C says:

I am not sure how this technology works it is strange and frightens me. I am intrigued by it and at the same time I am cautious of a future in which personal barcodes become the norm. Thank you for sharing this excellent work with us.

For the last few months, I've been wanting to make a piece with flowers growing out of and around a skull. I wanted to make it as if it had been buried and worked it's way up to the surface of someone's garden. It wasn't until the other day, that I finally decided on a medium...water color pencils. I haven't used water colors in about 15 years, but with inspiration from Noah's Watercolor Skull and many years of colored pencil use, I figured I could make it work. This took many hours to make, but I like how it came out and it was worth the time to try some old techniques in a new way.

I would include a tutorial for this one, but there is an excellent one that I used, so I suggest using this tutorial for Watercolor pencils and crayons too. It has images and clear instructions for different ways to use them. I applied mine dry to the paper (it looks just like a regular colored pencil when you apply it), then used a small brush with a little water to blend the pigment on the paper. To intensify some of the colors, I took the small wet brush and got some pigment off the pencil (I loaded the brush like you would with a regular set of paints). There are some other techniques mentioned, that I didn't use, but feel free to experiment and find what works best for you.

Every week in the 4.0 year, I will be post my own Dia de la Abby posts as well as a tutorial with instructions on how I made my piece. Hopefully you feel inspired by my posts just as I was by Noah's Skull-A-Day 1.0 daily project.

I had a birthday recently and since I'm now part of the Skull-A-Day crew, I got lots of skull presents...which of course I loved. This one below, is one my best friend, Kit McSmash, made for me. I love the combination of the different black, white and grey fabrics with the bright stitching, colorful sequins and beads. Now, I have to figure out how to frame it, so I can hang it with my growing collection of skull art.

Last Halloween in West Hollywood, CA, Jason Gogerty and his partner, Ismael went to the annual West Hollywood Halloween Street Carnival in skull make-up. Jason told us that they "spent almost 4 hours painting ourselves with black body paint from our waist up", using "little makeup sponges. Then, used white paint to create a skull on our faces."

The 1st picture is of Jason, alone in the bathroom with only red lights on because, he thought the effect was cool.

The second picture, is of Ismael and Jason together in their kitchen.

Both of you did a wonderful job with the makeup. I like the stylized skull that you all painted with the half body black paint. I like how the red light changes the color of the white. That is the nice thing about white paint, it easily takes on a new tone according to the light around it. Black, having a color absorbing quality, tend to be black no matter what light it around.We have had skull make-up on Skull-A-Day before and each person has a different style of creating it. It reminds me of Dia de los Muertos, which is a celebration of the dead. What better way to celebrate it than to make your self up to look dead.

Skull make-up is something that I've wanted to do myself for a while and haven't had the chance...but soon I will as I have two close friends that are getting married... I know spoilers...

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

I never realized until I was working with these about what a great play on words these craft supplies are. As a kid I remember doing projects with real pipe cleaners that came in that cool yellow sleeve it is interesting to see how something that at one time was so utilitarian has now turned into a craft item that kids use. This week, I also offer some words of advice. No matter how many you think you may need buy the large package, because if you don't have any idea what you are doing when you start, you are going to end up with a nice collection of failed attempts that are difficult to re-bend.

My weekly offering of original skull designs were posted on Mondays in year 3.0, and now I am posting them each Wednesdayduring year 4.0 . Knowing the personal pressures of a creating a piece each week, I tip my hat to the massive one-a-day project that was undertaken by The Skullmaster, during the original Skull-A-Day year.

Hopefully you will find some nourishment in my weekly offerings, but if you need more nourishment during the week, you may always Friend me or Follow me.

I am not sure of your origional intentions on this piece, perhaps you were only merely capturing the reflection from an over head light source, but when I saw this I thought of the classic “The Midnight Sun” episode of the Twilight Zone. My thoughts also turned to all the Egyptian art in which the sun-disk imagery is portrayed as part of the headdress like the goddess Hathor. Thank you for submitting your work for us to share.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Writer Bekah Wright recently attended one of my creativity workshops, based on the Skull-A-Day project, and she not only wrote up a lovely post about her experiences, but was even inspired to create a challenge of her own! Read the whole thing HERE.

Inevitably I'm given skull-y gifts on my birthday, but this year I got a particularly impressive one! My friend Robert made this giant wearable steel construction that looks like it would fit in well on some ancient battlefield! Now I just have to find an appropriate occasion to wear it out...

Deni Kaos is a fan of long exposure pictures as well as many other types of photos as showcased in his blog. Today he's joining the ranks of a few others with his laser light skull "inspired by Noah".

Skulls that shine with thought,Will always lead the path to,Brighter ideas

The green light skull makes me think of the Skull Master as well. He puts forth quite the effort to come up with bright ideas of how to stay green for our Earth's sake. I love seeing the green laser versus the usual red ones. It gives off a neon light vibe with that familiar gas glow that reminds me of late night smoky bars and tattoo shops. Thanks for the memories, Deni!

Monday, June 21, 2010

My friend Tere, an amazing jeweler, recently started her own weekly yearlong project inspired by Skull-A-Day! She's making a reliquary a week and the work is already gorgeous! There are no skulls yet, but knowing her I think there may be a few before the year is out!

Aaron Braun sent us this "little sketch done wit a standard bic pen on a sheet of typing paper".

I like the rough quality of this drawing. The anatomical artistry works well with the use of shading. It reminds of of a pirate flag and makes me more eager for the summer and fall Renaissance Festivals to start. Makes me want to wear my pirate costume. I like how if you look closely, you can see the other side of the paper where the type is. It reminds me of all those times I got bored at my corporate jobs and drew on the scrap paper from old memos. I still have a stack of those drawings somewhere.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

This week we feature frequent simulacra hunter Sam Snoek-Brown who sent us another batch of finds from overseas.

Sam wrote“We recently visited Amsterdam, where I found a pair of skulls. The first two were side-by-side on a curbside step in the city center; one is in white and the other (cooler but harder to see) is in black.”Sam also said: “The third skull was made from bubbles in the film on the conductor’s booth in a tram.”Wooden Shoe C says:

Welcome to year 4.0 here at Skull-A-Day. Thank you for all your wonderful contributions and support over the last year. Keep your eyes focused and your submissions coming, it is because of our loyal readers like you that we can continue this wonderful Sunday tradition.

Keep sending those pictures in to our submissions address. Just keep in mind that since we only post simulacra once a week it might take a little longer than normal for it to be posted.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Toronto, Ontario, Canada is home to Paige Reynolds, a visual artist who tells us, "Most of my art is dark, surreal and macabre and I frequently use skulls in my artwork." Her mixed media designs consist of visual artwork, paintings, photography and visual effects. She's done a great job of filling today's post with some excellent images that are stunning and should not be missed by skull lovers everywhere.

"Skull Card" - 22" X 30" Mixed Media (Acrylics on canvas + Digital)

"Above Suspicion" - 8" X 10" Digital Paint

"Defrost" - 18" X 24" Mixed Media (Acrylics on canvas + Digital)

These are just 3 of the images Paige submitted and I must admit that I loved everything she sent us. Her site is filled with more of these macabre images that are dark, ghastly, creepy, and most of all- AWESOME! I think the "Skull Card" is my favorite. The King Of Skulls seems like a character that could trump any Ace and would make a fitting groom for the Queen of the Dead. Thanks for keeping it dark and bloody, Paige.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Welcome to another addition of Flashback Friday.** This year the guest editors, Azurafae, Tatman, and myself, Citizen Agent, are taking turns counting down our personal favorite 17 skulls from the Original 365.25 Year. So please join us as we visit the archives and add our additional commentary onsome of the original pieces.

I am glad to see that the link I thought of in my original comment on this piece is still active. What makes this one of my favorites, is partially the subject matter and partially the material used in making it. First, with Lincoln, how can one not immediately think of a skull because of the manner in which he was assassinated. Second, the tecnical achievement of this piece is amazing, I really enjoyed that this piece was actually built using a full spectrum of the diversity of pieces in the set rather than just having the main pieces arranged into a skull form.

**Flashback Friday was a weekly countdown of the fan selected top 52 skulls of Skull-A-Day 1.0. Each week during year 3.0 The Skullmaster posted the original skull along with some additional commentary in order from lowest to highest rated, with the #1 skull appearing in the last week of year 3.0, all 52 can be found here.

Lora from Cleveland, Ohio wrote: “I was recently set loose on a very cool full body x-ray machine. The experience was unplanned, so I used debris I found at the workshop where the machine is being stored. I definitely plan on going back to create more!”

Lead Apron C says:

I can't help but think of those gag X-Ray spec glasses when I see this. I am envious that you have a fully body x-ray machine at your disposal to make art with. I guess it also comes in handy if you ever need to check if something is broken before you go and wait 3 hours at the emergency room. It was nice to see that you were able to collect enough “debris” here to create this work. Thank you for sharing your work with us and please keep us posted if you get a chance to do more X-Ray skulls. Here is another X-Ray Skull that the Skullmaster did back in the original year as inspiration.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Today's Dia de la Abby, is inspired by summer days as a kid, a want to make something outside and a need to entertain my daughter for an hour or more.

This was a drawing that I made on one of my front steps to my house, while my daughter drew on the other two. Because the art is outside, I drew a nature inspired sugar skull. I wish I had brighter chalk colors like the skull master did. One of my neighbors did see us drawing on our steps, but since she knows it's temporary, she wasn't bothered by the skulls. My daughter suggested making the the bow rainbow striped. While making it, I taught her how to conserve chalk and smudge the chalk after application. I also taught my daughter how to make a banner. There is a short tutorial this week and you can also see my daughter's interpretation of the above skull, as well as another chalk drawing she did.

This is what the skull looked like after the 1st rain. It has rained a few more times after that. All the white is gone. The only part that remains is the red skulls and cross bones and the signatures at the bottom. The red chalk seems to be the most durable.

Every week in the 4.0 year, I will be post my own Dia de la Abby posts as well as a tutorial with instructions on how I made my piece. Hopefully you feel inspired by my posts just as I was by Noah's Skull-A-Day 1.0 daily project.

Jennifer Hall is a huge fan of skulls and has been making jewlery for over a year now. She sent us these photos of 2 skull jewelry sets.

I really like the color and bead combos. They work really well with the skull pendants. I've made jewelry before, but nothing like this. I like that they are sets, but the pieces each work well on their own too. The 1st one reminds me of the beach with the watery shades and shell like quality of the skull. The blue and green glass beads also remind me of beach glass, which is something I love collecting. The 2nd one reminds me of a patch of violets that are covering an unmarked grave. The use of purples reminds me of the rare purples used for royalty in ancient times.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The folks at Jewcy.com have kindly included me in their The Big Jewcy list, which features 100 people they think are worth knowing about! Read their interview with me about all kinds of skull-related stuff HERE.

Also if you're in NYC this Thursday they're having a party to honor the folks on THE BIG JEWCY and I will be there, so why not come by and say hi. Details are HERE.

p.s. Jewcy.com is actually in the middle of their fund drive right now, so if you like what you see there, why not kick them a few bucks!

A long time friend of Skull-A-Day, Sharon Pazner, from Tel Aviv, Israel, wrote: “I've recently made a skull using scanned gauze, Attached are 2 pictures, one of the completed work, the other of my design vs. applying it on the gauze's somewhat organic mesh.” Sharon’s past work can be found here and here.

*please click on the image for a larger view

Mummy C says:

It is because of artist/fans like yourself that we are still going strong into the 4.0 year. I enjoyed seeing how you fit your design into the mesh pattern. I also imagined incorporating your design into a needlepoint or cross stitch work. I also began to wonder if there is a deeper meaning attached to this work with the material and subject matter you chose given your present location. Once again thank you for staying with us, and submitting another skull of interest.

I will be exhibiting a series of photos from the Skull-A-Day project at Cous Cous in Richmond, Virginia during the month of July! If you're in the area please stop by on Thursday, July 1st for the opening reception starting at 9pm!

Chris Zeliff, a long time friend of Skull-A-Day, was recenly inspired by us to start his very own yearlong daily project called Robot-A-Day! He's already off to a strong start making robots out of all kinds of fun materials. I look forward to seeing how the rest of his year goes!
His first post was a kind tribute in the form of a Skull Bot!...

P.S. Chris isn't the only daily robot-maker out there and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my friend Erin who's been doing her own Robot a Day for quite a while now and even posted one with a Skull on it recently!

If you were inspired by Skull-A-Day to create a 365 project be sure to tell us about it so we can feature it on the site!

Jed from Mount Barker, Australia developed this sweet "pick me up" while feeling down. "I got this idea after browsing through your wonderful collection. I've been sick at home for a while and it really brightened my day. He didn't last long though, because he started to melt and had to be... disposed of."

Wrap your mind around,One skull eating another,And tasting so sweet.

We've all heard of death by chocolate, and one would think that a chocolate skull would be the perfect graphic for that, but Jed shows how Skull-A-Day readers see the world differently. Thanks for the sweet vision of the candy cranium, Jed!

Monday, June 14, 2010

A little while back I started talking with a friend who lives in LA about how we could collaborate on some skull art together and we decided that we should do a postcard exchange. We're each creating an original piece of art on a postcard and mailing it to the other and we're also mailing an unmodified postcard to each other as well, which we will then modify and send back. In the end we'll each end up with two pieces of the other's art! Here's my first piece, which went in the mail a few days ago...

I painted directly on a vintage postcard card with acrylic paint and then glued some additional text onto the bottom. I'll post the ones I receive when they arrive as well as the second one I make when it's done.

Want to give this a try? Why not pick a friend to do a mail art exchange with and document the results. And hey, if there are skulls involved send the pictures to us so we can share them with the world!

The new United Skull of America shirt features all 50 states in correct proportion and comes in Men's, Ladies', and even Kids' sizes! It's printed on 100% organic cotton American Apparel T-shirts and is available only through the brand new Skull-A-Day shop!

I've been an avid fan of block prints for many years. I'm also an avid fan of carrion birds, including ravens. So, seeing the two together is a special treat. This is a beautiful depiction of a raven skull. I've only made 1 linoleum block myself, so I can really respect the time it takes to carve one this intricate and print one so perfectly. I suggest visiting Mark's blog to see his other block prints which are also great pieces.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

One of my favorite Simulacra themes is food. I looked in our submission box and am lucky to see we had three great food skull finds.

For breakfast, we have this skull from Christopher Endeavor. "Attached is a 'skull' I took a picture of on Mother's Day. It was what came out of the kitchen when I ordered the 'warm asparagus, two organic sunny side eggs, hollandaise sauce' for my entree at Restaurant Bastille, Alexandria, VA at Mother's Day brunch."

A skull lunch comes from Tony Baloney from New York City, NY. "This skull was found beneath my lid of my sweet and sour sauce, that came with my chinese food I had ordered recently."

After a lasagna feast, Ashley Kavanaugh found this marinara Skull.

Great, now I'm hungry. Anyone got any skull dessert to finish off this yummy feast?

Keep sending those pictures in to our submissions address. Just keep in mind that since we only post simulacra once a week it might take a little longer than normal for it to be posted.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Long time Skull-A-Day friend Dan Springer is back again today with some kick ass skateboard deck designs that helped out more than just us here at Skull-A-Day. This info comes from his blog: "I have been kicking around this idea in my head for a year or two but just never had the kick in the pants to try it, then my friend Joey asked me to be in a charity skate deck show so that was all I needed. It is a 3D anaglyph printed by using 2 laser etched skateboards... each slightly different to account for the object either popping in the foreground or receding into the background. I am surprised it work, it took alot of trial and error to get them to a point where I could pull off a decent print. I finally ended up using a high density sponge (actually the back of a foam stamp) to blot the ink onto the decks and then I aligned the paper and used a rubber roller to back of the paper to get a good contact."

Here's the 3D design on a white background so get out your glasses. Unfortunately I need to get a pair for myself so I can witness this awesomeness.

The actual decks look totally sweet and auction worthy.

*Sorry to censor your pic, Dan, but we try to keep things family friendly.

This third deck features Dan's super skully Skulluxe logo.

Wooden decks with skulls,pass along the art and soulof the free spirits.

These decks were displayed and sold at "Another Disposable Art Show" which was a one night silent auction fundraiser for "Free Skates" a charity that supplies boards to underprivileged kids. Kudos to you, Dan, and all those who participated in this stellar function that helps out in so many ways. Not only is the art you created original and amazing it reached out far beyond your studio to help others. Thanks for sharing these with us and thanks for passing on your love of skulls and skating.

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